Here's how FTL works: You take your space ship and crew (your options are limited at first but many more become available as you unlock them), and you set off across the galaxy. You are pursued by 'Rebels' (ie 'the bad guys') as you attempt to deliver an important shipment to another Federation station far away. Along the way, you'll encounter pirates, mercenaries, ships in distress, stations with plague outbreaks , and a huge variety of other situations that you'll have to navigate through. Meanwhile, you have to keep a close eye on your missile, fuel and drone reserves, your crews health, and the health of your ship. Your crew can repair the various systems of the ship, but merchants and items must be used to repair your hull. The game is, in essence, a 'Rogue-like', meaning that the point is less 'getting to the end' of the game and more 'getting further than you did last time'. Basically, the game tries to simulate the feel of being in the captain's chair on the Starship Enterprise (or whichever other sci-fi universe you prefer to imagine). Does it succeed? In a way. Commanding the crew and switching power from one system to another is fun, and the situations you can get into are interesting. However, I had hoped there would be more diplomacy in the game; debating with enemies rather than fighting them, and working with NPC 'captains' to solve a puzzle or reach a goal. Unfortunately there is not a lot of that in this game. They didn't exactly say there would be so I'm not docking it any points for that, but...it's definitely something I'd like to see in a sequel. The replay value of the title is a bit up in the air; the game should be easy enough to release 'adventure packs' for, and if the developer doesn't feel like doing that they should release the game to the modding community (if they haven't already). If they do, and new adventures and content packs are released, the game could potentially have unlimited replayability. We shall see. But regardless, FTL is certainly worth the few bucks it costs. It's the 'starship simulator' that every nerd has been wanting (even if they didn't know it) for years now. And it hits closer to the mark than any other game that's attempted it before (including the various Star Trek games, Eve Online and- gag- Battlecruiser 3000). Pick it up!
The graphics, music, and gameplay are all very good in this game. The cartoon style is vibrant and the game animation is very smooth (although, strangely, the animation in the cutscenes between acts is less well done. The animation in them is choppy and the quality is just somewhat poor; one bad guy we see there is literally nothing but a badly drawn mouth). The gameplay is classic point n' click with some fun and challenging puzzles. HOWEVER... The voice acting (in the English version) is absolutely horrible. None of it is very good, but the main character is terrible... the worst. He sounds almost exactly like Adam Sandler doing his squeaky Waterboy voice. It's terrible. LUCKILY, the game has the option of turning off voices and going text-only. I actually liked that, and I assume most GOG usuals will too, but anyway you should be warned; I've yet to meet anyone who has ever made it all the way through this game with the voice acting turned to ON.
Postal 2, like it's predecessor, was a game made specifically to generate headlines. The reasoning being, I suppose, that it's easier to rile up conservative, anti-violent video game types than it is to make an original, innovative game. I suppose it worked for the first game, which sold much more than you would expect a simple top-down shooter to sell. Postal 2, however, is a FPS; it's main selling points (aside from the graphic violence in it) where silly things like a cameo appearance by Gary Coleman, and the idea that you don't technically have to do anything violent to beat the game (though the denizens of Postal Guy's town do everything in their power to jostle you into, ahem, 'going postal'). The graphics are good for the time, and the sounds are acceptable. You can set people on fire, pee on them, blow their heads off, use the business end of a cat as a silencer...strangely, bodies can't be dismembered other than being decapitated, which normally wouldn't be a big deal but seems like a large omission in a game like this. All of that stuff is fun for a little while, but it starts to wear thin fast if you've ever played a gore-fest game before. After that, the main thing that keeps the game going is it's sense of humor, which consists mainly of toilet jokes and ethnic stereotypes. The main thing that really sucked about this game where the loading times. They were ridiculously long when the game came out (and are still uncomfortable on my current machine) and are far, far too frequent. The game didn't do much to alleviate the problem in it's gameplay either; there are points where you will have to cross one of the numerous load points, just to walk up the street a few meters and into another load point, collect an item there and go back through the two loads again, drop the item off and go back AGAIN to do something else! There are times where more time is spent looking at loading screens than actually playing the game. The price of all those pretty graphics I guess, but was it really worth it? No, not in my opinion. So, there you have it; a game selling itself on it's violence and free form gameplay, while doing neither particularly well. If it weren't for the terrible loading problems, I could recommend this game for a laugh at this price, if you are into silly potty jokes and things like that. As it is, I can only really recommend it for serious fans of the original.
I often find myself stuck between two worlds when it comes to RPGs; I enjoy the character building, deep storylines, and numerous side quests found in games like Baldur's Gate, but I find the combat to be stiff and slow. And, while I enjoy the fast-paced combat of games like Diablo and Sacred, I usually end up getting bored by the otherwise shallow gameplay very quickly. So it was with delight that I dove into Divine Divinity, which cleverly combined the best of both ends of the spectrum. The game starts with a character selection screen that appears, at first glance, to come straight from the Diablo side of it's family tree, but that proves to be misleading. You choose to play as a male or female warrior, wizard or survivor (rogue) character, so I assumed that I would end up climbing a skill tree appropriate to each character. That isn't the case though; regardless of which character you choose, you will be able to pick skills from any of the other classes as you see fit. The class you choose determines only your starting stats (high health and low intelligence for the warrior, vise versa for the wizard, with the rogue falling in the middle). It makes the Diablo-style character selection a bit strange since it belies the true depth that you can put into any character. I feel it would have been better off with a Fallout style character creation screen, where you take a generic character and and skills to your liking. But, it doesn't really matter since the system in the game works so well once you understand it. No matter how you build your character though, the game will be difficult, even on the easiest setting. This is mainly because it truly is a game without bumpers; you can totally ignore the main quest if you wish and go adventuring in the woods by yourself. However, you will most likely end up getting yourself in a fix pretty quickly; if you wonder into a forest, the game gives you no indication of it's difficulty. You may find a pile of treasure, or you might run into a platoon of orcs who will tear you apart in seconds. Items are realistically limited also; you will not find a magical two-hand sword of orge mashing just sitting in a crate in some guys barn. In fact, even decent weapons and armor are somewhat difficult to come by until you are well past the first dungeon and town, as most of the better weapons you find there will be beyond your ability to use. I would recommend sticking with the main story for awhile, at least until you get your bearings a bit. The main story is pretty good, too. It will be very familiar to anyone who has any experience with the fantasy genre at all, with dwarves and elves, magic and orcs and all that type of stuff. There is even a friendly white haired, bearded wizard who looks suspiciously like one seen in a certain fantasy novel and film which you may be familiar with. But, it is interesting enough, and it's well told. The writing is very well done and the voice acting is decent, with very little lost in translation from it's original language. Plus, even just going along with the main story you are bound to run into dozens and dozens of cool, rewarding side quests. The graphics are not bad for the time. Outdoor settings are detailed and character animations are good, though I felt that the dungeons where a bit generic and had a randomly-generated look to them. Colors are drab and washed out, akin to the color scheme found in Diablo 2. I like it, as it makes the world seem sort of grimy and realistic, but people who are fond of World of Warcraft's bright, cartoony graphics may find the game to look a bit muddy and depressing. The GOG version of the game installed easily on my computer, but it has crashed on me twice. Not often enough to complain about, but i would recommend saving often just to be safe. All in all, Divine Divinity is a very fun and unique RPG experience, more than worth the price GOG is asking for it. Buy it, so long as you don't mind losing weeks of your life immersed in a brilliant game.
I played BGAE a few years ago on a whim (I had gotten it for free from fileplanet.com because I won some raffle contest), and what a surprisingly good game it was. I had known about it only because G4TVs show 'cinematech' often played clips from it. It really is a shame when a good game like this falls under the radar while other, less memorable games (which shall remain nameless) get massive amounts of press. BGAE is a game whose atmosphere and style can best be described as a JRPG without the nonsensical plot. Here, we have a colorful world filled with cartoony characters like talking pigs and walruses, and a single young kid who is tasked with taking down an evil corporation, all that fun stuff. The plot is one of the games secret weapons though, so I won't go into more detail about it here. It's nothing mind-blowing, but it is well done and the great voice acting and animation really brings it to life. The main character, Jade, is a real breath of fresh air in the videogame world. She's pretty, but at the same time has her clothes on (unlike the unfortunate, half-naked girls from the similar JRPGs), and she's also pretty slick and intelligent too. More female game characters should be like this one. The gameplay is focused more on exploring than fighting, but you will have plenty of chances to pull out Jade's staff (which can be upgraded over the course of the game) and kick some butt with it. You'll also have a camera with you (since Jade is supposed to be a photographer), which you will use for various puzzles and quests. The main problem I have with the gameplay though is the stealth parts, particularly later in the game. Some people might enjoy the Metal Gear Solid-esque sneaking around, but personally I felt that it was sort of out of place with the rest of the game, and the camera wasn't really up to the task either. The stealth parts are why I'm docking the game one star. Overall, for the price, this is an awesome game. Probably one of the best I've seen on GoG so far. I highly recommend giving it a shot.
Duke Nukem came out in 1996, about in the middle of the flood of sprite based corridor shooters. It was a fair looking game by the standards of the genre, although the quality of the level and character design stood out quite a bit. Dukes one liners were all pretty funny even if they were stolen from older movies like Evil Dead and They Live. The 'raunchy' content (strippers and gratuitous violence) made quite a commotion at the time, but are tame by todays standards (in fact it was overshadowed pretty quickly by intentionally 'shocking' games like the original Grand Theft Auto). It was very popular for awhile, however the arrival of true 3d games like Quake and Half-Life cut it's popularity a bit short. So, how does it fair today? Well, the gameplay was good at the time; faster paced than Doom, with more interesting weapons and levels. It can't hold a candle to todays games in terms of technical quality, but it has a certain tongue-in-cheek cheesy humor that is hard to replicate in modern games. The levels still play well, and the weapons are more interesting and fun than most that you will find in modern games (which, I've noticed, tend to just give you standard rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher arsenals). So, I'd say for six bucks and a two minute download, it's probably worth it as long as you are looking to have a fun time with a cheesy action game, not looking for anything serious.
Well, considering that this game is being offered for free, the only real question to ask yourself is whether it is worth the short download time and small amount of space it will take up on your hard disc. If you don't want to read my review, here's the short answer; yes, it is. What are you waiting for? Download it! I'll keep this review to the point; BASS is a game with a wonderful story, although in my opinion the story could have been fleshed out a bit more. It's set in a city which is hundreds of stories tall, and feels to me sort of like a composite of the Los Angeles in Blade Runner and the city from Brazil. If a cool sci-fi story set in a place like that sounds like your cup of tea, than this game is for you. The graphics hold up fairly well, and if you run it through the included emulator you can tweak the graphics to be a little smoother. The voice acting is all very good, although I have to wonder how a bunch of British people (and one American guy) ended up populating a city in Australia. Of course the most important part of any adventure is the puzzles, and BASS has some really good ones. Most of them are very well thought out, but there are a couple that are nonsensical (and nonsensical puzzles are the bane of many adventure games, imo). One in particular involves launching a small animal into a pool of water with a catapult to destract a guard. What? Still, over all they are very interesting and make sense. Anyway, why are you still reading this? You should be downloaded Beneath a Steel Sky.
